Extracted from an e-mail from Doug Feldman to Bill Davis
May 16, 2002
[Dear Bill Davis:]
Christine Pettett (Yale University) and I would like to submit the attached AAA amendment resolution, offered as an alternative (or compromise) to ... the AAA policy on annual meeting location originally adopted on June 15, 1997. My sincere apologies for the delay and I hope that it will still be possible to consider both this and [the prior] amendments for the AAA executive meeting to be held this weekend. If not, I would appreciate it if they would be considered at the earliest possible opportunity.
Essentially, [the formerly proposed] amendment eliminates the exemption for localities within sodomy states that have passed sexual orientation legislation. Our alternative amendment eliminates the exemption for locations within sodomy states that have passed some sexual orientation legislation, but continues the exemption for locations within sodomy states that have passed all four of the following sexual orientation legislation: public employment, private employment, public accommodation, and housing.
The current wording of the 1997 AAA resolution is not precise when it "expressly excepts local municipalities that have extended civil rights protection to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people and/or have affirmed the validity of their committed relationships by ordinance or in express written policies." This could, and probably has, been interpreted to include cities that have extended anti-discrimination for public employment only, but not in the areas of private employment, public accommodations, and housing. My resolution changes this to read: "expressly excepts states, counties, and local municipalities that have extended civil rights protection on the basis of sexual orientation through legislation in all of the four areas of public employment, public accommodation, private employment, and housing."
We believe that we need to express our support to those cities and counties within sodomy states that have gone beyond simply extending protection to public employees, and are also extending protection to private employees and in the areas of public accommodations and housing. While we agree that there are other areas of anti-discrimination legislation (education, credit, union practices, and domestic partnerships), we think the basic civil rights issues of public and private employment, public accommodations, and housing on the basis of sexual orientation should serve as a minimum measurement for exclusion from our sodomy state ban.
We think that it is very encouraging that the number of sodomy states since the original resolution in 1997 has declined from 23 to 16, and that the impact of the resolution on limiting the number of locations where the AAA can meet has diminished. The current 16 sodomy states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. [The former] proposed amendment would exclude all locations within these 16 states.
Our proposed amendment would instead permit the AAA to meet anywhere in the state of Massachusetts and in the following locations in the remaining 15 sodomy law states: Broward County (greater Fort Lauderdale) Miami-Dade County (metropolitan Miami), and the cities of Gainesville, Key West, Miami Beach, and Tampa in Florida; the city of Lawrence in Kansas; the city of New Orleans in Louisiana; the cities of Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, and East Lansing in Michigan; the city of St. Louis in Missouri, the city of Austin in Texas, and the city of Alexandria in Virginia.
The current 1997 AAA policy could be interpreted to include the following cities which do not meet our more restrictive criteria. Our proposal would no longer allow the AAA to meet in the following locations: Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach, Alachua County outside of the city of Gainesville, Hillsborough County outside of the city of Tampa in Florida; Lousiana except for the city of New Orleans; Ingham County and the city of Lansing in Michigan; Columbia and Kansas City in Missouri; Asheville, Carborro, Chapell Hill, Durham, and Raleigh in North Carolina; Columbia in South Carolina; Dallas and Houston in Texas; Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County in Utah; and Arlington County, Charlottesville, and Virgina Beach in Virginia.
Future changes in legislation can be updated periodically as needed from the Human Rights Campaign website (www.hrc.org) for a listing of the sodomy states, and from Lambda Legal and Educational Defense Fund website (www.lambdalegal.org) for a listing of states, counties, and cities with anti-discimination on public employment, private employment, public accommodations, and housing.
If I can provide you with any additional information, please let me know.
Thank you.
Douglas A. Feldman, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Anthropology
SUNY Brockport
